If your parents will allow you to do that. Within the past 5 months I have been taking over the finances for my Dad as he was so hopeless lost when it came to bills, etc. as my late Mom always had taken care of that over the past 70+ years. I would find over-due bills in the recycling. Oops, not good.
Thus when I finally had time I was able to start checking over Dad's credit card statements. Little confusing at first with the auto payments my parents had set up for utilities and other items.
Today I had some free time so I had noticed a charge for $39.99 which had been going on monthly since December. I had ignored it in the past thinking it was another medical supplement thingee.... but today I called the phone number next to the charge and it was a discount buying service. Say what? The rep was very pleasant and she removed Dad from the service.
How in the world did Dad sign up for that? He probably thought it was a great deal saving on things to buy and probably didn't realize the monthly charge. I won't bother Dad with what I found, he probably won't remember signing up... [sigh]
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It's sad that companies exploit the charitable business by pretending to be one, trying to get authority for automatic charges for monthly donations.
I was unable to pay Dad's bill once because the phone payment system kept blocking my attempts, so after talking with a CSR and being connected to the fraud department I learned that the card had been flagged because of a strange charge. It was something like "for miscellaneous personal services" and for about $8.00.
Neither the credit card fraud rep or I could figure out what it was, but it was considered fraudulent and stopped, and a new card was issued.
I encountered a situation which I suspect will be a problem, but already have plans to stop it. I bought a magazine at a new book store in mid March and was asked if I wanted to try a free subscription for 2 months of 3 magazines of my choice. I wouldn't normally even consider it, but one was a magazine I used to subscribe to and found worthwhile. So I figured I'd get the freebies then cancel the offer.
The clerk processed the order then asked me to sign a slip agreeing that unless I notified this supplier to the contrary within 2 months, it would automatically start billing my credit card. Obviously I refused to sign, rescindied the magazine order, and convinced the clerk to call the supplier and stop it.
The clerk seemed honest but said that the company hadn't completely processed the "order" so therefore couldn't stop it. Obviously I smelled a rat.
Neither the clerk or the company ever contacted me. I did get some issues of one subscription, one issue of another, and none of the third. I fully anticipate that the company will attempt to bill my credit card, so I probably will cancel it just before the 2 months is up and thwart them. I'd like to see their reaction when they find out the card is cancelled and they can't try to bill me for something I never signed for.
I was able to get a current credit report for my Dad, had to answer some security questions and got them all right :) I wanted to be sure nothing strange was going on.
Next step is to freeze Dad's credit as he's not going to buy a house or new car at this stage in his life. He has only one credit card and I would like to get him a new one at another bank, but that means changing over all the auto payments connected to the old credit card... like who has time to do all that :P
Then a month later, I was charged another $7.99 charge for earrings I hadn't ordered. I immediately called and got that reversed. Some scammer company had gotten my info and was putting these small charges through, using different company names and phone numbers. When the charges are that small, you have to be paying attention to notice it. When I called the second number, it sounded like the same people answering the phone.
At that point, I immediately called my credit union and canceled that debit card and got a new one. Now I watch my OWN accounts like a hawk!